Wave Objects - 2021.1 English

Vivado Design Suite User Guide: Logic Simulation (UG900)

Document ID
UG900
Release Date
2021-06-16
Version
2021.1 English

The Vivado IDE Wave window is common across a number of Vivado Design Suite tools. An example of the wave objects in a waveform configuration is shown in the following figure.

Figure 1. HDL Objects in Waveform

The Wave window displays HDL objects, their values, and their waveforms, together with items for organizing the HDL objects, such as: groups, dividers, and virtual buses.

Collectively, the HDL objects and organizational items are called a wave configuration. The waveform portion of the Wave window displays additional items for time measurement, that include: cursors, markers, and timescale rulers.

The Vivado IDE traces the value changes of the HDL object in the Wave window during simulation, and you use the wave configuration to examine the simulation results.

The design hierarchy and the simulation waveforms are not part of the wave configuration, and are stored in a separate wave database (WDB) file.

Context Menu in Waveform Window

When you right-click an object in the Waveform window, a context menu (shown in the following figure) appears. See Understanding HDL Objects in Waveform Configurations for more information on HDL objects in Waveforms. The options in the context menu are described below

  • Go To Source Code: Opens the source code at the definition of the selected design wave object.
  • Show in Object Window: Displays the HDL objects for a design wave object in the Objects window.
  • Report Drivers: Display in the Tcl Console a report of the HDL processes that assign values to the selected wave object.
  • Force Constant: Forces the selected object to a constant value.
  • Force Clock: Forces the selected object to an oscillating value.
  • Remove Force: Removes any force on the selected object.
  • Find: Opens the Find Toolbar in the Waveform window to search for a wave object by name.
  • Find Value: Opens the Find Toolbar in the Waveform window to search a waveform for a value.
  • Select All: Selects all the wave objects in the Waveform window.
  • Expand: Shows the sub-objects of the selected wave object.
  • Collapse: Hides the sub-objects of the selected wave object.
  • Ungroup: Unpacks the selected group or virtual bus.
  • Rename: Changes the displayed name of the selected wave object.
  • Name: Changes the display of the name of the selected wave object to show the full hierarchical name (long name), the simple signal or bus name (short name), or a custom name.
  • Waveform Style: Changes the waveform of the selected design wave object to digital or analog format.
  • Signal Color: Sets the waveform color of the selected design wave object.
  • Divider Color: Sets the bar color of the selected divider.
  • Radix: Sets the radix in which to display values of the selected design wave objects.
  • Show as Enumeration: Shows values of the selected SystemVerilog enumeration wave object as enumerator labels in place of numbers, whenever possible.
  • Reverse Bit Order: Reverses the bit order of values displayed for the selected array wave object.
  • New Group: Packs the selected wave objects into a folder-like group wave object.
  • New Divider: Creates a horizontal separator in the list of the Waveform window's wave objects.
  • New Virtual Bus: Creates a new logic vector wave object consisting of the bits of the selected design wave objects.
  • Cut: Allows you to cut a signal in the Waveform window.
  • Copy: Allows you to copy a signal in the Waveform window.
  • Paste: Allows you to paste a signal in the Waveform window.
  • Delete: Allows you to delete a signal in the Waveform window.
Figure 2. Context Menu of Waveform Objects Window

See Analyzing Simulation Waveforms with Vivado Simulator for more information about using the Wave window.

Saving a Waveform Configuration

The new wave configuration is not saved to disk automatically. Select File > Simulation Waveform > Save Configuration As and supply a file name to save a WCFG file.

To save a wave configuration to a WCFG file, type the Tcl command save_wave_config <filename.wcfg>.

The specified command argument names and saves the WCFG file.

Important: Zoom settings are not saved with the wave configuration.